This is a big overhaul to previous ideas, but in mind, I've always thought that the boards are siblings to one another. Despite their constant arguments and hi-jinks, they still live in the same house, the house of 4chan (imagine a pink house with a 4-leaf clover on top of it, m00t+mods in a cloud overhead because they aren't directly involved). The board-tans don't always fight; sometimes they get along when their interests cross one another, like how /co/ manages to enjoy a few animes and how /a/ sees most of /v/'s games as appealing. Everyone is pretty much in an open relationship with one another.

/b/, however, this is a twist. He is their father. He's the invasive, over-bearing, abusive dad that no one wants to deal with because of his childlike antics. No one enjoys mentioning that they are even remotely related to him, so he is still referred to as just /b/. (The board-tans do have their /b/ moments, though, so when they are venturing out of the 4chan house, it becomes evident to the other websites).

Either than that small thought, /b/ is still /b/. Being a father does not change anything about his randomness and raids.

(How I came up with /b/ being a father is relevant to his first appearance in 4chan. He is the first board at the 4chan house, hence his ideas possibly shat out many other board-tans and why he thinks he's so superior to everyone else. m00t might as well be the mother.)

A long stretch, but I could see many potentials in family dynamics.

So yeah, I added my thoughts. Hope I didn't type this out in the wrong board 'cause that would be embarrassing!

I don't think "characters are actually siblings" was ever brought up before, but looking back at everything that exists, it wouldn't be so hard to fit everything into that mold. This set-up also gives /b/ the "special" (in more ways than one) role /b/-the-board has.

Possibly problematic are the romantic relationships. However, since nobody can ever agree on how to ship the characters/boards, maybe that's for the best. Kind of keep things mostly the same, except say "they are really close siblings (and sometimes they fuck if you want jeez)." Since shipping is a major source of butthurt perhaps forgoing it all would be a good thing.

Perhaps they are not siblings in the general sense that they share a parent, but siblings in the sense that they are all the brain-children of /b/ in some sense? Explains differences in age and kind of makes everything not an incestuous slurry.

Being siblings also solves the problem of explaining why they live together or something.